UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones 5-1-2015 Who is Ophelia? An examination of the Objectification and Subjectivity of Shakespeare's Ophelia Tynelle Ann Olivas University of Nevada, Las Vegas Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/thesesdissertations Part of the Literature in English, British Isles Commons, and the Women's Studies Commons Repository Citation Olivas, Tynelle Ann, "Who is Ophelia? An examination of the Objectification and Subjectivity of Shakespeare's Ophelia" (2015). UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones. 2403. http://dx.doi.org/10.34917/7646003 This Thesis is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by Digital Scholarship@UNLV with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Thesis in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/ or on the work itself. This Thesis has been accepted for inclusion in UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones by an authorized administrator of Digital Scholarship@UNLV. For more information, please contact [email protected]. WHO IS OPHELIA? AN EXAMINATION OF THE OBJECTIFICATION AND SUBJECTIVITY OF SHAKESPEARE’S OPHELIA By Tynelle Ann Olivas Bachelor of Arts in English Bachelor of Arts in Secondary Education- English University of Nevada, Las Vegas 2001 A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Arts – English Department of English College of Liberal Arts The Graduate College University of Nevada, Las Vegas May 2015 Copyright by Tynelle Ann Olivas, 2015 All Rights Reserved - We recommend the thesis prepared under our supervision by Tynelle Ann Olivas entitled Who is Ophelia? An Examination of the Objectification and Subjectivity of Shakespeare’s Ophelia is approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts - English Department of English Evelyn Gajowski, Ph.D., Committee Chair Phillip Rusche, Ph.D., Committee Member Vincent Perez, Ph.D., Committee Member Lezlie Cross, Ph.D., Graduate College Representative Kathryn Hausbeck Korgan, Ph.D., Interim Dean of the Graduate College May 2015 ii Abstract William Shakespeare's Ophelia, from his tragedy play Hamlet, has predominately been perceived and depicted as an objectified female with very little purpose other than to support Hamlet's role as protagonist. I explore the ways in which Ophelia was objectified by her brother, father, and Hamlet. I also analyze how Ophelia not only exhibits subjectivity, that is the ability to think, act, and speak for herself, but plays the part of Shakespearean fool. In her interactions with Hamlet specifically, Ophelia addresses Hamlet first, raises questions of the prince, and conducts herself in a way that is not always in keeping with the tenets of proper female decorum, that is silent, chaste, obedient. Likewise, in her madness, Ophelia is an autonomous being showcasing her subjectivity by thinking, acting, and speaking of her own accord. Throughout his comedies and romances, Shakespeare's court fools convey truth and honesty in a way that the audience recognizes, but the characters in the play fail to realize. It is in her madness that Ophelia adopts this role of Shakespearean fool and in so doing, articulates the quagmire of female subjectivity in Elizabethan England. iii Acknowledgments My heartfelt gratitude and appreciation are extended to Dr. Evelyn Gajowski, Dr. Philip Rusche, Dr. Vincent Perez, and Dr. Lezlie Cross for their unbelievable support, guidance, and recommendations. I am eternally grateful for my family and friends, especially JAD, who have granted me serenity during the storm that is thesis writing. I am blessed by their encouragement and unwavering love. iv Table of Contents Abstract..............................................................................................................................iii Acknowledgments..............................................................................................................iv Table of Contents................................................................................................................v Introduction........................................................................................................................1 Part I: Ophelia’s Objectification....................................................................................10 Chapter 1: Ophelia as Laertes’s Mock-Daughter.........................................................11 Chapter 2: Polonius’s Obedient Pawn.........................................................................27 Chapter 3: Hamlet’s Ophelia…………………….......................................................42 Part II: Ophelia’s Subjectivity……………....................................................................59 Chapter 4: The Sane Ophelia………….………….……….…………………………60 Chapter 5: Madwoman as Shakespearean Fool (Or the “Insane Ophelia”)………….70 Conclusion……………....................................................................................................89 Works Cited......................................................................................................................93 Curriculum Vitae.............................................................................................................96 v Introduction Who is Ophelia? This is the question that began my literary journey into the heart of William Shakespeare’s most objectified, but least understood, female character. Ophelia is, for many scholars and non-scholars alike, the tragic, pitiful creature who drowns towards the end of the play Hamlet1. She is the beautiful maiden immortalized in Sir John Everett Millais’s painting, Ophelia. A minor character most often remembered for going mad and doling out flowers. Ophelia’s story has been perceived as one of insignificance, except for what she reveals to us about the protagonist, Hamlet. With the advent of feminist criticism in the 1970s, Ophelia as subject gained and has continued a rise in status in scholarly inquiry. In analyzing who Ophelia is, the most obvious perspective is that of objectified female. Although Shakespeare’s England was ruled by a female monarch, Queen Elizabeth I, society, as a whole, was very much patriarchal. Males were the head of the household, the figurehead responsible for protecting and procuring the needs of their wives, children, and property. Females were seen as extensions of male property or possessions, tethered first to their father’s households and then later their husband’s. During this time period, relations with women were believed to be “paradoxically both necessary to and threatening to the accomplishment of adult masculine identity” (DiGangi 199). Being a man was signified by becoming a husband and father, and yet “the period’s dominant gender ideologies assumed the moral and intellectual inferiority of women, and typically portrayed sexual passion for women as emasculating” (DiGangi 199-200). Early modern English women were constructed as the more sexual of the 1 All textual references to the play, Hamlet, are taken from Hamlet by William Shakespeare, ed. Susanne L. Wofford, Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism (Boston and New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 1994). 1 two genders and as such men felt justified in their constant patriarchal policing by father, brother, and husband (Gajowski). A woman who spoke too much was branded a harlot. In early modern England, “excessive or public female speech could easily be perceived as disorderly; moreover, it was a common belief that a woman who was open with her mouth was likely to be open with her body as well” (DiGangi 261). Conversely, a married female who harped too much on her husband was likely to be socially and physically punished. Puritan minister William Whately’s popular 1617, marriage treatise A Bride-Bush, Or a Direction for Married Persons, clearly instructs wives to “acknowledge her inferiority” while practicing the “virtue of subjugation” and reminds them always “to show reverence” for her husband (270). Whately explicitly states that a wife’s speeches to her husband should neither be “cutted, sharp, sullen, passionate, tetchy, nor yet rude, careless, unmannerly, and contemptuous” (270). A woman who exhibits these faults is, according to Whately, “rude, shameless, graceless; next to harlots, if not the same with them” (270). It was widely accepted throughout England during Shakespeare’s time that a good woman was a quiet woman. Many Christian men of the period believed in the biblical teachings from the book of Timothy that state “Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection” (King James Bible, 1 Timothy 2:11). A talkative or scolding woman was seen as evil and disorderly, specifically a challenger to the patriarchal system of order. In order to quell such subversive behavior, English men instituted machinations of torture and rehabilitation such as the cucking stool and scold’s bridle. The cucking stool was a “chair attached to a lever used to dunk the victim repeatedly into a lake or river” whereas the scold’s bridle was an “iron headpiece with a metal bit that pressed down on the victim’s tongue, preventing her from speaking and possibly causing gagging or 2 lacerations” (DiGangi 264-265).